The Greeks thought Venus was two different stars. They called the morning star Phosphorus and the evening star Hesperus.

Some of the first results emerging from Venus Express include evidence of past oceans, the discovery of a huge double atmospheric vortex at the south pole, and the detection of hydroxyl in the atmosphere.

The northern continent is called Ishtar Terra after Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love, and is about the size of Australia.

The Greek mathematician Pythagoras was the first to discover that the brightest stars in the morning and evening sky were in fact the same object: Venus.

It does rain in Venus's atmosphere, but the rain evaporates 25 kilometers above the surface, so none gets to the surface.

The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of Earth.

Venus was the first planet beyond Earth visited by a spacecraft (Mariner 2 in 1962), and the first to be successfully landed on (by Venera 7 in 1970).

Maxwell Montes, the highest mountain on Venus, lies on Ishtar Terra. Its peak is 11 km (7 mi) above the Venusian average surface elevation.

Most Venusian surface features are named after historical and mythological women. However, a few features were named before the current system was adopted by the International Astronomical Union, the body which oversees planetary nomenclature.

Venus's thick clouds render observation of its surface impossible in visible light, and the first detailed maps did not emerge until the arrival of the Magellan orbiter in 1991.